Hi! I’m still alive and blogging. I’ve been MIA because I started a new job a couple of weeks ago, and it’s wearing me out! I used to be a librarian at a small, private, liberal arts university. I spent seven years there before leaving to take my new position as a librarian at a not-so-small, community college. I hadn’t started a new job in seven years, so I forgot how tiring learning all of the ins and outs can be! Also, I don’t know the exact numbers, but I think our last headcount was about 3x more than the institution that I left, and since I’m in Tennessee, that’s only going to increase as students take advantage of Tennessee Promise (the program that offers two years of community college free to new high school graduates). Phew!

I’ve been taking camera phone pictures in our break room restroom lately, so I didn’t think the quality was great, but after I uploaded them, I thought that they may be better than some of my camera pictures! 😉

And, on a random note, my parents, brother, husband, and I went to see the Blue Man Group in Nashville a couple of weeks ago (the day after my new job started!). I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was amazing! Plus, all of them were in the lobby afterwards for pictures. The picture below features one of my new January purchases that I’ll talk about during my Budgeting Bloggers January wrap up post in two weeks!

My brother, husband, and I met a Blue Man!

I love that my husband broke out his blue “marf” (his term for “man scarf”) for the occasion!

I want to try to include more outfits in my posts since it’s a lot easier to take a few secret pictures before work each day. I know that a lot of my favorite bloggers take pictures outside, and when it’s warmer, I might return to our deck, but for now, enjoy the lovely fluorescent lighting and sweet views of the powder room!

It’s time to close the door on 2014 and welcome 2015. I’ve always been a nerd about new beginnings, and I get especially nerdy around the start of a new year! I’ve seen a lot of bloggers posting their favorite outfits from 2014, which I love seeing, but since I didn’t take too many pictures this year, I thought I would look ahead to what I want to do differently in 2015. With that in mind, I came up with my top 3 style resolutions for 2015.

1. I will quit coveting items that aren’t right for me just because I see them on a lot of different blogs.

Case in point: the Target plaid blanket scarf:

This puppy has been all over my Feedly this fall and winter, and I wanted it badly! I stalked the website and went to a couple of different locations that said it was in stock, but I kept coming up empty handed. Then one day, in a stunning moment of clarity, I realized that I had a whole drawer of scarves that I rarely wear because I’m pretty hot-natured. Why would I add another one to it just so I could keep up with other bloggers? I just saved myself $17 plus tax, which leads me to resolution 2.

2. I will set a monthly clothing/shoes/accessories budget and stick to it.

Sometimes, when I remember to keep up with what I purchase each month (oops), I will participate in Franish’s Budgeting Bloggers linkup. Every time I do, I’m pretty stunned to see how much I’ve spent on clothes/shoes/accessories that month! We have a lot of financial goals that we would like to reach in 2015, and I’ve got more than enough to wear, so I’m going to limit myself to $100 per month. That should be plenty to restock basics as I figure out where my wardrobe’s holes are. I won’t count any gift cards from doing surveys or any consignment store credit in this since that’s not money coming out of our budget.

3. I will learn to remix my wardrobe and better define my style.

I’m contemplating buying the Hello, Gorgeous! online membership course from Greater Than Rubies. It’s supposed to focus on finding your style and remixing your wardrobe. She always looks fantastic, and the price is reasonable, so I think it could be really beneficial for this resolution…and beyond!

Bonus resolution 1: I will learn to properly use my camera and editing software.

This one isn’t necessarily style related, but it relates to the blog! My camera is about five years old, so it doesn’t have some of the cool features that today’s newfangled cameras have (I’m not sure what cool features I’m talking about; I just wanted to sound like an old prospector). However, I do know that I have a problem with blurry, out of focus shots (like the one below), and I would like to figure out how to solve that. I also want to figure out how to sharpen my images a little more and play with the focus by using editing software.

It’s all a blur to me…

Bonus Resolution 2: I will do some housekeeping on the blog.

This blog is a bit…messy. I’ve got a ton of tags, categories, and labels, along with some pictures that don’t even show up anymore! I want to take time to clean things up and get everything looking a little better. After all, if my images are going to look better, shouldn’t the blog? 😉

Do any of you have style resolutions for next year? Please share them!

Instead of being like a normal person and posting holiday outfit ideas, I’m going in a completely opposite direction and posting a rather long story about shoes. I always have been a little different. I hope you all enjoy and have a great Christmas (or day off work, if you don’t celebrate Christmas)!

The year was 1996. A teenage Amber and her family went to an outlet mall that they rarely got to visit. Amber, already a shop-a-holic at age 13, wanted to go into a shoe store and check out the offerings. She was at that awkward stage of not really knowing her style (oh, who am I kidding, I’m still there nearly 20 years later…), so her latest foray into fashion was inspired by the “grunge look” that the 1990s have become known for. As she walked around the shoe store, she was relatively unimpressed by their offerings until her young eyes spotted these…

She had to have them. Sadly, her funds were limited and she didn’t have enough to buy them that day. However, she was persistent in both saving her money and annoyingbegging asking her parents nicely to drive her back to the store. The persistence paid off and the shoes were hers!

She wore them quite frequently during her 8th and 9th grade years, then as she ventured into other looks and styles, they didn’t grace her feet nearly as often. They sat in her closet, gathering dust and only being worn on the rare occasion when she felt like making a statement with her feet. When she entered the world of full-time employment and grown up married life, they became yet another pair of shoes on her closet floor that she had to make sure the dog didn’t attack. Were they doomed to a life of being second-class citizens, relegated to a showpiece of days gone by? Or, could Amber somehow sneak them back into her shoe rotation, especially after seeing a resurgence in Doc Martens and subsequent knockoffs at places such as Target?

Here, my good readers, is the answer to those burning questions…

Cardigan: Walmart (its last go around b/c it had a hole in the sleeve…boooooo)
Chevron tank top: Walmart
Black tank top (unseen): Old Navy
Jeans: Old Navy
Boots: Old

And, for good measure, she decided to give another nod to 90s fashion by wearing safety pin earrings, approved by the dog, of course.

Amber, feeling a bit daring and a dash inspired, may even try the shoes with a dress and tights soon. There is a particular dress from Old Navy that lends itself to a recreation of a glorious 90s inspired outfit, and perhaps, if Amber asks nicely enough, Santa will bring it to her this Christmas (three more days!!).

And now, the tale of two boots will draw to a close. Rest assured, these will be seen again sooner rather than later.

I swear, our dog has an uncanny sixth sense for knowing when I’m taking pictures for the blog. I wanted to participate in this week’s Style Imitating Art linkup and realized when I got home that I didn’t have any full-length shots of my outfit. My camera is being funky right now, so this phone picture (propped up on my bathroom counter- hence the white space at the bottom), is the best I have. I got the phone set up, hit the timer button, and got into position, and before I knew it, I heard the running click of dog toenails, and the below shot was born. At least he’s cute, right?

I loved my earrings today! (But ew, sorry about the hair on the shot. There’s a difference between keeping it real and not editing. I fall into the latter, unfortunately…). I got them at a fall craft fair last year from a lady who had made all kinds of Scrabble tile jewelry. I wish I still had her card because I’d like another pair!

So now for the Style Imitating Art bit. Here is this week’s painting, At the Piano by James McNeill Whistler

And here is my interpretation, complete with a goofy face…

This was a phone picture too. It’s amazing what the right lighting can do! Also, special thanks to two of my best guy friends from college for arranging my “photo shoot”. Gotta love the people who you can ask to take your picture at a piano on a stage without giving an explanation! 🙂

I’m not a fan of cold weather. Last week, Tennessee, like the rest of the country, got hit with Novembruary temperatures. I was just getting used to the fall weather when that nonsense struck! Thankfully, we’re back to comfortable temperatures because I’m not ready to be cold all of the time!

This outfit was from last week, and I had planned to wear a giant infinity scarf that my mother-in-law had given me last Christmas, but by the time I finished getting ready, I was too hot to even consider it! I regretted that decision in my cold office that afternoon!

Last month, Jen at Librarian for Life and Style blogged an outfit that featured varying shades of teal green. I really liked the idea of wearing variations of a color, instead of being matchy-matchy.

I wore this outfit last month during Tennessee’s 965 days of rain in a row, so my hair got a nice rain-inspired pouf to it by the end of the day!

This picture should’ve been more cropped but WordPress’ media center evidently doesn’t care for me!

I had to include these two pictures because they were the best two that showed how our pup “helped” me blog. I think he has a blogging career.

I didn’t get a good picture of my earrings, but they were a lighter shade of green. Overall, I liked this outfit. I wouldn’t have thought to put this combination together, so I appreciated the inspiration from Jen!